feature story
To Build Jewish Student Community
on Christian Colleges, It Takes a Village
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
N ear the entrance of Saint Joseph’s University’s
Chapel of Saint Joseph–Michael J. Smith, S.J.

Memorial, sits a sculpture, “Synagoga and Ecclesia
in Our Time” by Jewish Philadelphia-based artist Joshua
Koff man. Forged in bronze are two fi gures, a rabbi and
a priest holding their respective holy books and study-
ing together.

Erected in 2015, the statue represented a renewed
urgency to foster ties between the Catholic and Jewish
religions. Th at same year, Pope Francis attended a ded-
ication of the statue and visited St. Joseph’s. Following
the visit, the Jesuit-affi liated campus experienced a col-
lective interest in developing interreligious ties.

Seven years later, the reverberations of this initial
push aren’t obvious. In a student population of 6,779,
there are about 60 identifi ed Jewish students. Th e school
has no cohesive Jewish community, but the tides are
once again changing.

Following three COVID-aff ected academic years,
students at St. Joe’s are experiencing a renaissance of
student engagement. Th e college’s acquisition of the
Philadelphia private school University of the Sciences
means it must reckon with the addition of a new student
body with varied religious identities.

Aft er a symbolic commitment to strengthening inter-
religious ties, the college is looking to fulfi ll its promise
of promoting religious diversity more tangibly.

On the Main Line, St. Joe’s is joined by Villanova
University, another Catholic-affi liated college with a
budding Jewish community. Th is year, the Greater
Philly Hillel Network, a Hillel organization working
with students at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges
and West Chester University, has hired a new rab-
binical intern to spend more time on campus and a
Springboard Innovation Fellow to more deeply engage
with the school’s Jewish students.

As the new academic year nearly coincides with the
Jewish New Year, there’s a growing sense that this will
be the year when the Jewish student population on these
two Christian campuses becomes an institutionalized
and unifi ed group.

“We’ve set modest goals for the coming year and are
really exploring what the future might bring,” Greater
Philly Hillel Network Executive Director Rabbi Jeremy
Winaker said. “Our modest goals include developing
the leadership pipeline for the Hillel at Villanova and
establishing a Hillel at St. Joe’s.”
Villanova created a Hillel several years ago with
the help of Campus Ministry. Greater Philly Hillel
“Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time” at the entrance of St. Joseph’s University’s Chapel of Saint
Joseph–Michael J. Smith, S.J. Memorial
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
began the partnership in August 2021 and, since then,
the organization has experienced “waxing and wan-
ing” student support and attendance, according to
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College rabbinical intern
Aviva Marchione.

Marchione works with students at Villanova’s cam-
pus for eight hours a week, sitting down for coff ee and a
meal with students or hosting dinners, such as on Rosh
Hashanah and break the fast. Usually, a handful of stu-
dents attend each event.

In previous years, a rabbinical intern was only on cam-
pus for two hours per week. In addition to Marchione’s
increased presence, Springboard fellow Sean Culley is
on campus, tasked with engaging students and gather-
ing information on what makes them tick.

As students emerge from a COVID-induced student
engagement hibernation, identifying student interests is
increasingly important.

“Talking with students, there’s a clear need for com-
munity and just relationships with other Jews — a space
just for Jewish students to be Jewish together is the big-
gest need,” Marchione said. “I have realized that that is
a higher need than any sort of Jewish identity-building
or Jewish learning.”
As Culley has spoken with students at Villanova, he’s
noticed a shift in the way they engage with student life.

Th ere used to be a “bread and butter” formula students
would follow: Th ey’d see a poster around campus or a
post on Instagram about an event, and then they’d show
up. Now, however, students are looking to be engaged
more personally.

“Students, everybody involved in Jewish community
at Villanova and St. Joe’s, is just looking for people to
relate to, for people to understand them and for people
that want to help them grow in their own personal lives,
whether it be their Jewish journey or not,” Culley said.

Changing student needs means that Marchione and
Culley are still trying to fi gure out how to get students
to show up.

“Th e Jewish community at Villanova is really still
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